Global Markets: U.S. Major Indices All Down Over 1% Silver Plunges Gold, Crude Oil, and Bitcoin Drop Significantly

U.S. Stock Market: The three major U.S. stock indices closed lower across the board on February 5th. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 592.58 points to 48,908.72, down 1.2%; the S&P 500 declined 84.32 points to 6,798.4, down 1.23%; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 363.99 points to 22,540.59, down 1.59%.

Gold and silver stocks plunged, with the world’s largest silver ETF—iShares Silver Trust—dropping over 15%, Pan American Silver down over 8%, Coeur Mining nearly 8%, Kinross Gold over 4%.

Cryptocurrency, rare earth, quantum computing, drone, and energy stocks all declined. As Bitcoin sharply fell below $65,000, MARA Holdings dropped over 18%, Strategy down more than 17%, and Ebang International, The9, and Coinbase all experienced double-digit declines. Prediction platform Polymarket shows an 82% chance that Bitcoin will fall below $65,000 this year, with the probability of dropping below $55,000 rising to about 60%. Analysts believe that after this round of sharp declines, Bitcoin’s upward momentum, market narrative, and its label as a “safe-haven asset” have almost simultaneously disintegrated. Critical Metals fell over 18%, NioCorp Developments nearly 14%, USA Rare Earth over 12%; Quanten, Quantum Computing, D-Wave Quantum fell over 14%, IonQ down more than 13%, Rigetti Computing over 12%; Unusual Machines, Ondas dropped over 12%; Indonesia Energy down over 11%, US Energy down more than 4%.

Large tech stocks showed mixed performance, with Netflix up nearly 1%, Meta slightly higher, Microsoft down nearly 5%, Amazon down over 4%, Tesla down over 2%, Google slightly lower (market concerns over high capital expenditure guidance caused an initial drop of nearly 8%), and Apple slightly down. In the chip sector, ASE Technology Holding rose over 6%, ARM gained more than 5%, Applied Materials, TSMC, Micron Technology, ASML, and Broadcom also rose. Qualcomm and Microchip Technology fell over 8%, AMD, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology declined more than 3%, Nvidia, SanDisk, and STMicroelectronics fell over 1%.

Most popular Chinese concept stocks rose, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up 0.90%, NIO up over 5%, Li Auto up more than 2%, Bilibili up over 1%.

European Stock Market: The three major European indices all declined on February 5th. The FTSE 100 in London closed at 10,309.22 points, down 93.12 points or 0.9%; the CAC 40 in Paris closed at 8,238.17 points, down 23.99 points or 0.29%; the DAX in Frankfurt closed at 24,491.06 points, down 111.98 points or 0.46%.

Commodity Market: International oil prices fell on February 5th. By the close, NYMEX WTI crude oil futures for the current month dropped $2.02 to $63.12 per barrel, down 3.10%. COMEX gold futures for the current month declined $152.70 to $4,798.1 per ounce, down 3.08%. COMEX silver futures for the current month fell $14.05 to $70.35 per ounce, down 16.64%. Spot gold dropped $183.75 to $4,780.56 per ounce, down 3.70%. Spot silver declined $17.22 to $70.98 per ounce, down 19.52%.

Overnight Headlines

CME Raises Initial Margin for COMEX 100 Gold Futures from 8% to 9%

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) increased the initial margin for its COMEX 100 gold futures from 8% to 9%, and raised the initial margin for COMEX 5000 silver futures from 15% to 18%.

Software Stocks’ Selloff Triggered by New Products: AI Agents Team Up for Work, Better at White-Collar Tasks

Following a series of AI plugins that triggered this week’s “SaaS apocalypse” and widespread selloff in tech stocks, U.S. AI star company Anthropic announced the launch of the latest version of its flagship large model, Claude Opus 4.6, on Thursday. The company also boldly stated that after AI has thoroughly changed the way software is developed, it’s now time to expand into the broader workplace.

Massive Drop, Over 210,000 Liquidated! Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000

The cryptocurrency market plummeted across the board. On February 5th, the crypto market continued to decline, breaking below $70,000 for the first time since November 6, 2024. Other cryptocurrencies also fell sharply: Ethereum and Dogecoin down over 8%, SOL over 7%, XRP over 14%, BNB nearly 10%.

Elon Musk Says SpaceX Has Not Developed a Phone

Elon Musk stated that SpaceX has not developed a phone.

OpenAI Launches New Platform Frontier, Emphasizing “Good News” for the Software Industry

On Thursday, local time, OpenAI announced the launch of a new enterprise-level platform called Frontier, marking its latest move to deepen its presence in the enterprise market and attract more business clients. Frontier will serve as an “intelligent hub,” integrating scattered internal systems and data to perform tasks such as document handling and code execution. The platform aims to help companies manage, deploy, and build AI agents—smart tools capable of independently completing tasks for users.

Inflation Falls Below Target Level, ECB Holds Rates for Fifth Consecutive Meeting

On Thursday, February 5th, the European Central Bank (ECB) held rates steady for the fifth consecutive time, in line with market expectations. The three key interest rates remain unchanged: the deposit facility rate at 2.00%, the main refinancing rate at 2.15%, and the marginal lending rate at 2.40%.

Russia-Ukraine-U.S. Second Day Talks End Without Breakthrough

According to CCTV News, on Thursday, Ukraine and Russia concluded a second day of talks in Abu Dhabi led by the U.S., but no breakthrough was achieved on key issues. The two sides agreed to exchange 157 prisoners of war each, a rare concrete outcome from the talks. However, U.S. special envoy Wittekov warned that there is still a lot of difficult work ahead in the coming weeks, which undoubtedly dampens short-term hopes for peace.

Volkswagen to Surpass Tesla in 2025, Become Europe’s Best-Selling Electric Vehicle Brand

Market research firm JATO Dynamics announced on Thursday that Volkswagen will surpass Tesla in electric vehicle sales in Europe by 2025. This is another blow to Tesla, especially after Chinese automaker BYD overtook Tesla last year to become the global leader in EV sales.

Largest Mining Merger Fails: Copper Asset Valuation Disputes

The merger between Rio Tinto and Glencore to form the world’s largest mining group was announced to have collapsed on Thursday. The merger rumors date back to the 2008 financial crisis, but serious talks only began in 2024. After intermittent negotiations, the two companies confirmed they were in merger talks in January. Under UK takeover rules, the deadline for Rio Tinto to make a formal takeover offer was Thursday, February 5th.

Meituan Acquires Dingdong Maicai for 5 Billion Yuan: Beyond Just Selling Vegetables?

On the afternoon of February 5th, a major deal impacting the fresh retail market was finalized. Meituan (03690.HK) announced it would acquire Dingdong Maicai’s China operations outright for approximately $717 million (about 4.976 billion RMB). The deal has stirred market nerves. After completion, Meituan will directly control over 1,000 distribution centers, more than 7 million monthly active users, and a supply chain with nearly 9 years of operation from farm to table.

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